Soundaktor removal

[Genegenie]

Risk of flogging here: I don't get the concept of the Soundaktor . To me, it's a silly artificial noise-making device, a bit like wedging a lolly stick in the brake caliper of a bicycle to 'make it sound like a motorcycle'. If yer wants a decent exhaust note, change yer 'zorst. Another 2p worth there....

 

[MSchott]

Common on turbo engines as the turbo mutes the exhaust noise. I was having a buzz in my dash and the dealer coded the soundaktor to reduce the amplification. This eliminated the buzz. Much better.

 

[Genegenie]

Good point never thought of that, annoying buzzes can drive one up the wall....

 

[up4speed]

I used to like the soundaktor, but then I got tired of the drone at low RPM's. It sounded like the engine was straining.
I purchased the OBD11 and experimented with it at many levels between 0% and 100%. I decided that I like it at 50% the best. It adds a little growl, just enough to hide the waste gate rattle, lol. But it's not so loud that it interferes with the stereo, or enjoyment of the car. Now I think it just sounds sporty, not over done. So far I'm happy with it.

 

[vj123]

I disabled the soundaktor last evening and extremely happy without the artificial sound. Also this eliminated the rattles which i had before.

 

[skr9]

I disabled the soundaktor last evening and extremely happy without the artificial sound. Also this eliminated the rattles which i had before.

Did you unplug or use OBDeleven type mod?
I tried unplugging last night, but ended up with the sore hand as others did, as I found it to be a tight space, but I looked further through the thread, and see that removing the plastic cowl on the passenger side helps for access, so will try and do that today. I'm also an iOS user, so was hesitant to get an Android device on top of purchasing the OBDeleven.

 

[vj123]

Did you unplug or use OBDeleven type mod?
I tried unplugging last night, but ended up with the sore hand as others did, as I found it to be a tight space, but I looked further through the thread, and see that removing the plastic cowl on the passenger side helps for access, so will try and do that today. I'm also an iOS user, so was hesitant to get an Android device on top of purchasing the OBDeleven.

I used OBDeleven to get this done. I wanted to do other modifications and thought it was worth the price. Dealer quoted $105 just to turn off the soundaktor!

 

[skr9]

Thanks for everyone contributing to this thread. I removed the passenger side plastic cowl, and that made it easier to remove the smaller connection at the forward side the soundaktor - #1 in the first photo in this thread.
So that I could hopefully convince myself this was worth the aggravation, I did a quasi-nonscientific decibel reading using an app on my iPhone, so here are my results:
(drove the same road, went up to 3rd gear only, and tried to hold at 4000rpm)
With soundaktor active in normal mode: min 58.9dB; max 99.1dB; peak 112.4dB
With soundaktor disabled: min 59.2; max 84.9; peak 95.1
I'm not an acoustical engineer - but for my 2 cents, the numbers speak for themselves, and I am very pleased I disabled this thing - made a noticeable difference to me.

 

[sumakor]

Just unplugged it. Didn't take sound dB readings and it's not limo quiet but it's a "noticeable," difference especially at low RPM cruising around town (when you generally want it to be quiet). At full throttle you hear the turbo whistle more and there's still a throaty exhaust note at mid-high RPMs. So it sounds great, IMO. Don't need this soundaktor thing. Stock exhaust, Unitronic Stage 1+.

Also removed the passenger side plastic; it's trivial to reinstall. Just getting the connector off in that tight space took the longest. I wasted time trying to move the little grey center part of the connector clip (see page 1 connector 1)... turns out the black parts on either side are also part of the clip. It was much faster once I realized that.

 

[Chogokin]

I used the OBDeleven and turned it to 0. Could have sworn that there was buzzing in the dash somewhere before I turned it off. I like the car more without it.

 

[SpeedieGTI]

Just find someone who can code the sound to 0%! Why on earth would you bother with removing or unplugging the thing?!...so dumb.

 

[Kopfjager]

If you just want to unplug it.

https://youtu.be/kf5RJY9Kx68

 

[slide13]

Just find someone who can code the sound to 0%! Why on earth would you bother with removing or unplugging the thing?!...so dumb.

Because I don’t know anybody who can code it off and it took me about 5min to unplug it myself. I have big hands and didn’t need to remove the cowl, just reached in and unplugged it. Now removing it would probably be a challenge. Unplugging is super easy though.

 

[alderran1]

I remember putting it in sport mode because I was on a windy road and thinking you’ve got to be fcking kidding me. Unplugging it was the easiest way to get rid of that ludicrous feature


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Finglonga]

Just find someone who can code the sound to 0%! Why on earth would you bother with removing or unplugging the thing?!...so dumb.

Because unplugging it takes seconds without having to ask someone to do it.